1. Field
The present invention relates to a method, system, and article of manufacture for encrypting and decrypting database records.
2. Description of the Related Art
Businesses often maintain highly sensitive and confidential information on their business operations and customers in a database management system. Providing security for database information is a primary concern of information technology managers. In fact, government regulations require that certain sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc., be secured to protect from identity theft. Companies have lost substantial business and credibility as a result of data theft.
One security solution to these problems is to provide a hardware or software encryption solution. Such current encryption solutions require the installation of an add-on program or hardware device and the modification of the database applications to incorporate commands and interfaces to invoke the encryption and decryption services. This can be burdensome by requiring that database users both learn to use the commands and interfaces of the encryption services and then modify currently used database applications to include calls to the encryption services.
For these reasons, there is a need in the art for improved techniques to provide encryption services for database management systems.